Jodi Cleghorn’s Writing in Black and White (discovered through her critiques and comments on Fourth Fiction, she writes fabulous stuff)

Congratulations to all of you, please pass the award on to seven of your favourite bloggers and list seven favourites on your blog. This is a great way to find new things to read out there on the jolly old internet. I suspect I won’t get much writing done today.

Seven Favourites

I struggled with this one. it was OK when I thought it was seven favourite mystery authors, that’s a defined category. Then I followed the award trail back and discovered it’s seven favourite anythings. Oh god. Too much to choose from. So I wandered round the house, then I sat here and thought for a while, then I nagged the kids to do their chores, then I read my email…

…then I had a brainwave.

Here are my seven favourite ways to procrastinate!

Social networking. Email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader… there’s always someone sending me status updates about their prowess on Farmville, or tweets about cricket, or emails about extensions to parts of my anatomy that I don’t have.

Tidying my bedroom (which is where I write). Unfortunately I’m much better at untidying it than tidying it, so this is always a task that ‘needs’ doing.

Updating my competitions list. I do sometimes think if I spent more time writing stories and poems to enter into these competitions I might stand more of a chance of winning.

Cleaning the toilets. Yes, there are times when I find myself wielding a bottle of bleach and I just don’t know how I got there.

Playing with Excel. My novel progress tracking spreadsheet now has so many bells and whistles, I should probably take out a patent.

Talking to the kids. They’re teenage boys, the last thing they want to do is talk to their mother. But it’s good to interact with them, right? Show them I care?

Having a power-nap. You know when you can barely keep your eyes open, and 20 minutes sleep is just what you need? Shame I usually sleep right through my alarm, and a power-nap turns into a full two-hour siesta.

Staring out of the window. Considering all I can see is the sky, the roof of next door’s house and their TV aerial, plus a small part of my guttering, there’s an awful lot to keep me entertained.